Rev. Josiah Strong

1847 - 1916  (69 years)

• Name	Josiah Strong  [1]
  Prefix	Rev.
  Birth	19 Jan 1847	Naperville, Dupage, Illinois, USA   [1]
  Gender	Male
  Death	28 Apr 1916	New York, New York, New York, USA   [1]
  Person ID	I9964	Bisbee
  Last Modified	13 Aug 2008

  
  

  Father	Josiah Strong   d. Yes, date unknown
  Mother	Elizabeth C. Webster   d. Yes, date unknown
  Family ID	F4402	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Alice Bisbee,   b. 14 Oct 1840, Chardon, Chardon, Geauga, Ohio, USA d. 1918, Greenwich, Fairfield, Connecticut, USA (Age 77 years)
  Marriage	29 Aug 1871	Chardon, Chardon, Geauga, Ohio, USA   [1]
  Children	1. Katie Strong,   b. 6 Jun 1872   d. 24 Sep 1873 (Age 1 year)   2. Elsie Strong,   b. Nov 1873   d. Abt 1968, , , North Carolina, USA (Age 94 years)   3. Margery Strong,   b. Feb 1877   d. , , North Carolina, USA + 4. Howard Strong,   b. 17 Feb 1880   d. Aug 1964, Arlington, Arlington, Virginia, USA (Age 84 years)
  Family ID	F3973	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	13 Aug 2008

  
  

• Event Map		Birth - 19 Jan 1847 - Naperville, Dupage, Illinois, USA Marriage - 29 Aug 1871 - Chardon, Chardon, Geauga, Ohio, USA Death - 28 Apr 1916 - New York, New York, New York, USA  = Link to Google Earth
  Pin Legend	: Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  
  

• Notes

  Wyoming's Kingdom Crusader Josiah Strong 1847-1916 On a cold night in 1873, the town of Cheyenne, Wyoming, was set afire. The arsonists were the town's former brothel-keepers, who had been forced out of business by Pastor Josiah Strong's call for a moral cleanup. The flames did nothing to melt Strong's resolve. Strong had been just a greenhorn graduate of Cincinnati's Lane Theological Seminary when he married Alice Bisbee on August 29, 1871. Ten days later, the newlyweds were setting up house in Cheyenne, where Strong was ordained and installed as pastor of a Congregational church. He stayed long enough to lead the anti-prostitution crusade (and suffer the consequences mentioned above), but he soon headed back east to take a chaplaincy at Western Reserve College in Ohio. As the years passed, Strong's passion for societal reform grew. In 1885 he published his most famous and influential book, Our Country. By 1916 it had sold over 125,000 copies. The book drew heavily on his western experience but also recalled the ideals of his Puritan ancestors. He challenged the nation and the church to transform society with biblical principles and thereby establish the Kingdom of God on earth. "Free institutions are safe only when the great majority of the people have that reverence for law which can spring only from reverence for God," he wrote. "The most striking defect of young America is the lack of reverence." To remedy this, he exhorted the church to roll up its sleeves, work hard, pray always, and seize the day for Jesus Christ. After the initial success of Our Country, Strong dedicated himself fully to biblical social reform, first in America and then in Britain and in South America. His efforts gave birth to the "Safety First" movement, the American Institute for Social Service (and its British counterpart), and the Federal Council of Churches in America. Mark Ammerman is author of The Rain From God, The Ransom, and The Longshot (all Horizon Books), a historical fiction series set in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century New England.

  
  

• Sources

  [S2309] Viola Drake Bisbee, compiler, Geneology of The Bisbee Family (I) - Viola Drake Bisbee, (June 2000, Bisbee Family Connection, Decatur, MI), 110.